The Black Dakotas

President Abe Lincoln would like to make peace with the Sioux Indians so he can transfer troops from the West to the South, where they are needed for Civil War duty. The Rebs hear of this and send a spy, Merrill, to pose as a Yankee and steal the gold that the Indians have promised to the Northerners.

Despite lacking some star power and bordering in average, this is a decent western that stars Gary Merrill as a spy from the South in Civil War days. He lead actor and the villain. I guess that's a unique feature. John Bromfield is actually the hero - a bland one too- but he's second fiddle to the villain. Wanda Hendrix plots to double-cross the double-crosser.

The Technicolor is rich and atmospheric, the plot is not too difficult to follow, and the Indians are treated fairly sympathetically. There's plenty of action. A satisfying twist in the tale which wraps things up nicely.

This is the lousy example of what grade B pictures are most of the time. This one makes no exception, standard stuff full of clichés and foreseeable chaarcters and situations. I did my best to find something unusual and surprising but it was useless and also hopeless, a fight lost in advance. Except maybe Gary Merrill's character as a surprising evil dude, but this is not Alan Ladd in ONE FOOT IN HELL either. But because I am a big B movies buff, it remained a comfortable moment. I did not pay attention to check if it was produced by the infamous Sam Katzman; I had not the courage to push the back forward button of my VHS; cause I have this film from a late TNT channel taping off, from the nineties or late eighties. But I recognized the Columbia B department trade mark. Music score for instance.

Gary Merrill stars in this low budget B western from Columbia in which the villain is top billed. Merrill plays a southerner sent out on a mission to disrupt treaty negotiations with the Sioux in the Dakota territory while the Civil War is on. There's a treaty on its way to the Sioux already signed on the Union end by President Abraham Lincoln and arriving later a shipment of gold for the Sioux valued at $100,000.00. That's for not attacking the settlers out in Dakota.

But Merrill is in business for himself. He shoots the American envoy and takes his place. He nearly gets away with what he's doing, but it's a question of one double cross too many.

Merrill's villainy totally dominates the proceedings here. John Bromfield is the northern boy and Wanda Hendrix the southern girl who help put a stop to things. Some more western familiar faces are here. A lot of the cast is killed most by Merrill, some on his behalf before things are set right.

A little far fetched but entertaining nonetheless.

Complex B-western with shifting loyalties and a few surprises. In the Dakotas, it's Civil War southerners conspiring against northerners for possession of big money, with the Sioux nation as a wild card. Needless to say, you may need a scorecard to keep track. Nonetheless, the screenplay is offbeat and generally unpredictable, always a plus for a western.

There's also some surprisingly graphic violence on-screen, without the usual cut-aways to spare viewer feelings. Merrill's not a typical western lead, but then he's not playing a cowboy. Instead, he's an agent from Washington, but of uncertain loyalty. Watch for Noah Beery Jr. as Gimpy, bringing his usual down-home color to the role. All in all, it's an offbeat little western with some pleasant LA area scenery, which is enough for most of us.

A remarkably ruthless outdoor western set against the backdrop of the Civil War, rather incongruously shot on attractive locations in pretty colours; it features Gary Merrill as an exceptionally venal and self-centred anti-hero supposedly working for the South but actually just in it for himself.